Duke Johnson and Herbert Waters provided the fireworks to lead UM to a rather "meh" victory over FAU.
While Duke and Waters provided those fireworks in the 34-6 victory, it was a surprisingly competent defense that caught my eye. Maybe it's sad that my standards fell so low, I mean I can't believe I just typed that. It's just that after last year I'm impressed with just about anything with this defense. Most of the problems on offense last night are all fixable. Drops here and there, miscommunication, and the like can be chalked up to first game jitters or a bad night. The poor execution in short yardage rushing can't, that's a trend that has carried over from last year. Neither can the inconsistency and poor throws while under pressure from Morris. It harkened back to some of the poorer performances by Morris last year. The opponent next week is a different kettle of fish so this stuff needs to get ironed out.
Highlights:
[video=youtube;ksuuwF04dLs]www.youtube.com/watch?v=ksuuwF04dLs[/video]
Here's what I said were the main story lines in the gameday post :
1. Is the defense still bad?
I'm not saying that they're the '85 Bears or anything, but they did a solid job. FAU only had 1 drive where they were able to put anything together, and that was aided by a bad penalty from Perryman. They stiffened up and held them to a field goal after being gifted the ball in the red-zone. They also got after the QB, racking up 5 sacks in the process. We had 13 sacks all year last season. They were facing an awful team and did a good job of making (or letting) them look awful.
Were there mistakes? Sure. On one play in particular Dukes had Crawford beat, who was forced to commit pass interference. That one drive FAU put together saw receivers finding gaps in coverage and a long run on the edge from a jet sweep. Cornelius and some of the other linebackers looked a bit lost at times in coverage, which isn't a new development. But when you hold the opponents offense to less than 250 yards, thats good. Some of that was FAU's own ineptness. Better teams with better QB situations won't look so potato-y. Next week will be a much bigger test to say the least.
2. Is the offense as dominant as we think it can be?
500 yards of offense (over 300 rushing) and I'm disappointed. Don't get me wrong, Duke is a joy to watch and on his way to becoming a legend here. But he's 1 guy. Nagging problems from last year like inconsistency, poor short yardage rushing, and drops still appear to be there. It was only 1 game, but there certainly wasn't any dominance on display last night. Maybe it's a wake up call. Maybe new OC James Coley was holding stuff back. Several people have remarked how "vanilla" the offense looked. Something to keep note of, last year our offense almost never went deep in the first 3 games. Then all of a sudden against Georgia Tech we started throwing it all over the field and in every subsequent game. Was that a directive from Golden or was that just Fisch? Hopefully it's the former.
Regardless, Morris didn't look that great. Outside of a couple of big plays by Waters the receivers didn't do much to help him out either. Dorsett and Morris couldn't get on the same page it seemed. Then there was the two sure touchdowns being dropped by Coley. It all added up to let frustration creep in and prevented the team from getting into a rhythm.
3. Can we please start using our OL's size to our advantage?
As big as these guys are, they just can't move people when we're in short yardage/goal line situations. Don't you dare come at me with, "LOL, we had over 300 yards rushing". F that. There is no reason why we should be getting stuffed twice on 4th and short with our OL as big as they are. And as small as FAU's front seven was, they should've been wrecking ****. If they still can't push the likes of FAU around in the run game, what are they going to do when they're faced with going up against the likes of Powell, Fowler, Easley, and Bullard?
4. Can all of our good players avoid getting injured and missing the Florida game?
It looked like Scott injured his collarbone when he landed awkwardly in the 4th quarter. No idea on the turnaround for an injury like that. It sucks for a couple of reasons. The first being that he made such a sick catch and we ended up not getting points on the drive. I'd be ****ed off if I missed significant time making a play, only for my teammates to go and fart around on the goal line like they did. Second, remember when Golden talked about the lack of depth at wideout last week? Well we're now short another guy. It makes Jontavious Carter's departure actually matter.
Lets Recap.
1st Quarter:
At kickoff, it's announced that FAU coach Carl Pelini suspended 5 players indefinitely because of a violation of team rules. Not that it would've mattered much, it certainly didn't help FAU. UM won the toss and elected to defer to the second half. Jaquez Johnson got the start and he promptly threw a pass right to Denzel Perryman. He bobbled what would have been an easy pick 6. The crowd was pretty hyped. After FAU punts Miami is flagged for a delay of game penalty and have to start from their own 11. New OC James Coley calls a flea flicker for his 1st play. It's covered pretty well and Morris has to check down to Duke, who turns it into a 38 yard gain. Hurns then takes back to back hitch passes for decent gains. The drive stalls and Golden elects to go for it on 4th and short and UM gets stuffed by FAU's defense. Welp.
After FAU takes over Byron Hankerson takes over at QB. They pick up a 1st down when Antonio Crawford gets flagged for pass interference while trying to cover William Dukes. It didn't matter and FAU punted a few plays later. On the very next play Duke takes a run off right tackle for a 43 yard gain. Now were cooking. A pass interference flag on FAU puts Miami in the red-zone for the first time. On 3rd down Morris sees Coley in the back of the end-zone for a sure touchdown, but Coley drops it. UM settles for a field goal and takes a 3-0 lead.
Johnson is back again at QB for FAU but it doesn't matter because they go 3 and out. On 3rd down Morris finds Coley streaking over the deep middle. Perfect chance for Coley to atone for that dropped TD earl....he dropped this one too. Morris is ****ed and Miami punts. Hankerson in for FAU and he scrambles for a long gain to pick up a 1st down. Perryman gets flagged for a late hit which moves FAU into Miami territory for the 1st time. A sack by Olsen Pierre later on moves the ball back to midfield to close out the quarter. Miami should be up 21-0 at least, and that's just from the gimme touchdowns that were dropped. Instead it's just 3-0 after 1.
2nd Quarter:
FAU sucks, so the quickly punt. Herb Waters makes a big catch down the sideline on 3rd down for a gain of 33 yards. Duke was probably tired of his team fooling around with an inferior opponent. So on the next play he decides to just take the hand off, hurdle a linebacker, and scoot down the field for a 53 yard touchdown. 10-0 Miami.
Just 17 minutes into the game, Duke has 130 yards rushing and 38 yards receiving. What a player.
Hankerson is still in at QB for FAU and he starts putting a drive together with a no huddle offense. A jet sweep goes for a big gain and Perryman gets flagged again for a late hit, moving the Owls inside the 10. Miami's defense holds up and forces a field goal. 10-3 UM. Morris starts the next drive with a big scramble for a gain of 16. Duke bounces a run off the right sideline for another big gain and all of a sudden Miami is at FAU's 35. The drive stalls and UM kicks another field goal making it 13-3 UM.
FAU goes 3 and out and Dallas Crawford returns the punt across midfield. Clements is in at running back and he picks up a couple of tough 1st downs (including a 4th down conversion) on 5 consecutive carries. On the next play Morris hits Walford on play action and he holds on after a big hit. Chuck Amato's brother was the replay official, so naturally that douche bag analyzed that replay like it was the Zapruder film. The touchdown was upheld anyway. 20-3 UM.
FAU goes 3 and out, and Golden calls timeout to give the offense the ball with just under a minute remaining in the half. On the first play Morris' pass is tipped at the line of scrimmage and he ends up catching his own pass. Morris should have let it drop, but there was an FAU defender nearby so whatever. The play results in a loss of 16 yards and essentially ended the 1st half. 20-3 UM.
During the halftime interview, Golden is asked about what he needs to say to Coley about his drops. Golden responds with, "Just relax bro". And thus, a new meme is born:
GettinThatToGooo
ForensicCane
3rd Quarter:
UM gets the ball to start the 2nd half since they deferred to open the game. Dorsett's return doesn't get past the 10 yard line because he tried to go East/West instead of cutting up field. Morris promptly throws a horrible interception. There was nobody there except the FAU defender and now they're at UM's 20 yard line. FAU gets down to the 1 yard line and things are starting to feel awkward for UM. But then an FAU lineman flinches and backs them up to the 6. FAU ends up tacking on another field goal making it 20-6 UM.
Schnellenberger comes into the booth, and not a moment too soon because Miami and FAU aren't really doing anything with the ball. It made for a nice distraction from the lackluster performance by UM. They mostly talked about his time at UM and the '83 title team that was being honored. It was pretty cool to see them finally get their own Crystal Ball trophy.
Back to the game. After trading punts Miami starts putting a drive together. Morris hands it to Duke, who tosses it to Waters on an end around. Waters picks up two key blocks down the sideline, and cuts back across the field for a sick 63 yard touchdown. 27-6 UM.
Every Cane fan's "sum of all fears" moment came right after Waters crossed the goal line. Duke dove at a defender's knee after he pitched the ball to Waters and hurt his neck. He eventually got up and was helped to the sideline. The trainers handed him an iPad and started giving him a concussion test. He was good, but Duke never stepped foot on the field the rest of the night. Jesus.
FAU and Miami trade punts again, and then Kacy Rodgers comes up with a big play. He blitzes off the edge from his safety spot and drills the QB, forcing a fumble. Gilbert dives on it and Miami has the ball at FAU's 4 yard line.
Dallas Crawford runs it in on the fist play and it's 34-6 UM. FAU runs two plays to pick up a first down as the 3rd quarter ends.
4th Quarter:
On the 1st play of the 4th quarter, Kamalu and Gilbert combine for a sack and loss of 3 yards. It's the 5th of the game for Miami's defense. The drive goes nowhere and FAU punts. Miami has pulled the 1st team players by this point and the rest of the game is pretty boring. With Ryan Williams in the game, he starts moving the ball with freshman Gus Edwards toting the rock. He looks good and picks up a first down on a 16 yard run.
Williams lobs a ball for Scott and he makes an acrobatic catch. However, Scott lands awkwardly on his shoulder. It had to be a collar bone or seperated shoulder because his left arm was hanging to his side as he walked off the field. The trainers had to cut off his shoulder pads since he couldn't raise his arm, and he was seen walking to the locker room with an ice pack on his left shoulder. UM can't punch it into the endzone on 3 straight running plays and decide to go for it on 4th down. It looked like Edwards had crossed the goal line, but the referees said otherwise. It wasn't reviewed, and the commentators remarked how it certainly appeared to be a touchdown. By the way, if it were a touchdown, then UM would've covered the spread (-32.5). I'm sure that had nothing to do with it though.........
With just under 6 minutes left FAU takes over at their own 1, and starts trying to muster a drive to finish the game with some semblance of pride. Miami only has 2nd and 3rd string players in the game by now. Some of the freshmen in the game now start showing flashes of their potential. Figueroa makes a couple of hard hits, Jamal Carter makes a nice open field tackle, and Artie Burns makes a terrific play breaking up a deep ball to the end zone.
Finally with less than 10 seconds left, FAU is at Miami's 25 yard line and it's 4th down. With the clock running and out of timeouts, it starts to get frantic on the FAU sidelines. Coach Pelini instructs Jaquez Johnson to spike the ball....yes...spike the ball on 4th down.
Yikes. UM kneels on the ball to run out the clock ending the game at 34-6 UM.
Not a stellar performance by any stretch of the imagination. We'll need a better effort against the Gators next week. The best part of the win? Cmar is now undefeated as a Game Day Character.
decleated
While Duke and Waters provided those fireworks in the 34-6 victory, it was a surprisingly competent defense that caught my eye. Maybe it's sad that my standards fell so low, I mean I can't believe I just typed that. It's just that after last year I'm impressed with just about anything with this defense. Most of the problems on offense last night are all fixable. Drops here and there, miscommunication, and the like can be chalked up to first game jitters or a bad night. The poor execution in short yardage rushing can't, that's a trend that has carried over from last year. Neither can the inconsistency and poor throws while under pressure from Morris. It harkened back to some of the poorer performances by Morris last year. The opponent next week is a different kettle of fish so this stuff needs to get ironed out.
Highlights:
[video=youtube;ksuuwF04dLs]www.youtube.com/watch?v=ksuuwF04dLs[/video]
Here's what I said were the main story lines in the gameday post :
1. Is the defense still bad?
I'm not saying that they're the '85 Bears or anything, but they did a solid job. FAU only had 1 drive where they were able to put anything together, and that was aided by a bad penalty from Perryman. They stiffened up and held them to a field goal after being gifted the ball in the red-zone. They also got after the QB, racking up 5 sacks in the process. We had 13 sacks all year last season. They were facing an awful team and did a good job of making (or letting) them look awful.
Were there mistakes? Sure. On one play in particular Dukes had Crawford beat, who was forced to commit pass interference. That one drive FAU put together saw receivers finding gaps in coverage and a long run on the edge from a jet sweep. Cornelius and some of the other linebackers looked a bit lost at times in coverage, which isn't a new development. But when you hold the opponents offense to less than 250 yards, thats good. Some of that was FAU's own ineptness. Better teams with better QB situations won't look so potato-y. Next week will be a much bigger test to say the least.
2. Is the offense as dominant as we think it can be?
500 yards of offense (over 300 rushing) and I'm disappointed. Don't get me wrong, Duke is a joy to watch and on his way to becoming a legend here. But he's 1 guy. Nagging problems from last year like inconsistency, poor short yardage rushing, and drops still appear to be there. It was only 1 game, but there certainly wasn't any dominance on display last night. Maybe it's a wake up call. Maybe new OC James Coley was holding stuff back. Several people have remarked how "vanilla" the offense looked. Something to keep note of, last year our offense almost never went deep in the first 3 games. Then all of a sudden against Georgia Tech we started throwing it all over the field and in every subsequent game. Was that a directive from Golden or was that just Fisch? Hopefully it's the former.
Regardless, Morris didn't look that great. Outside of a couple of big plays by Waters the receivers didn't do much to help him out either. Dorsett and Morris couldn't get on the same page it seemed. Then there was the two sure touchdowns being dropped by Coley. It all added up to let frustration creep in and prevented the team from getting into a rhythm.
3. Can we please start using our OL's size to our advantage?
As big as these guys are, they just can't move people when we're in short yardage/goal line situations. Don't you dare come at me with, "LOL, we had over 300 yards rushing". F that. There is no reason why we should be getting stuffed twice on 4th and short with our OL as big as they are. And as small as FAU's front seven was, they should've been wrecking ****. If they still can't push the likes of FAU around in the run game, what are they going to do when they're faced with going up against the likes of Powell, Fowler, Easley, and Bullard?
4. Can all of our good players avoid getting injured and missing the Florida game?
It looked like Scott injured his collarbone when he landed awkwardly in the 4th quarter. No idea on the turnaround for an injury like that. It sucks for a couple of reasons. The first being that he made such a sick catch and we ended up not getting points on the drive. I'd be ****ed off if I missed significant time making a play, only for my teammates to go and fart around on the goal line like they did. Second, remember when Golden talked about the lack of depth at wideout last week? Well we're now short another guy. It makes Jontavious Carter's departure actually matter.
Lets Recap.
1st Quarter:
At kickoff, it's announced that FAU coach Carl Pelini suspended 5 players indefinitely because of a violation of team rules. Not that it would've mattered much, it certainly didn't help FAU. UM won the toss and elected to defer to the second half. Jaquez Johnson got the start and he promptly threw a pass right to Denzel Perryman. He bobbled what would have been an easy pick 6. The crowd was pretty hyped. After FAU punts Miami is flagged for a delay of game penalty and have to start from their own 11. New OC James Coley calls a flea flicker for his 1st play. It's covered pretty well and Morris has to check down to Duke, who turns it into a 38 yard gain. Hurns then takes back to back hitch passes for decent gains. The drive stalls and Golden elects to go for it on 4th and short and UM gets stuffed by FAU's defense. Welp.
After FAU takes over Byron Hankerson takes over at QB. They pick up a 1st down when Antonio Crawford gets flagged for pass interference while trying to cover William Dukes. It didn't matter and FAU punted a few plays later. On the very next play Duke takes a run off right tackle for a 43 yard gain. Now were cooking. A pass interference flag on FAU puts Miami in the red-zone for the first time. On 3rd down Morris sees Coley in the back of the end-zone for a sure touchdown, but Coley drops it. UM settles for a field goal and takes a 3-0 lead.
Johnson is back again at QB for FAU but it doesn't matter because they go 3 and out. On 3rd down Morris finds Coley streaking over the deep middle. Perfect chance for Coley to atone for that dropped TD earl....he dropped this one too. Morris is ****ed and Miami punts. Hankerson in for FAU and he scrambles for a long gain to pick up a 1st down. Perryman gets flagged for a late hit which moves FAU into Miami territory for the 1st time. A sack by Olsen Pierre later on moves the ball back to midfield to close out the quarter. Miami should be up 21-0 at least, and that's just from the gimme touchdowns that were dropped. Instead it's just 3-0 after 1.
2nd Quarter:
FAU sucks, so the quickly punt. Herb Waters makes a big catch down the sideline on 3rd down for a gain of 33 yards. Duke was probably tired of his team fooling around with an inferior opponent. So on the next play he decides to just take the hand off, hurdle a linebacker, and scoot down the field for a 53 yard touchdown. 10-0 Miami.
Just 17 minutes into the game, Duke has 130 yards rushing and 38 yards receiving. What a player.
Hankerson is still in at QB for FAU and he starts putting a drive together with a no huddle offense. A jet sweep goes for a big gain and Perryman gets flagged again for a late hit, moving the Owls inside the 10. Miami's defense holds up and forces a field goal. 10-3 UM. Morris starts the next drive with a big scramble for a gain of 16. Duke bounces a run off the right sideline for another big gain and all of a sudden Miami is at FAU's 35. The drive stalls and UM kicks another field goal making it 13-3 UM.
FAU goes 3 and out and Dallas Crawford returns the punt across midfield. Clements is in at running back and he picks up a couple of tough 1st downs (including a 4th down conversion) on 5 consecutive carries. On the next play Morris hits Walford on play action and he holds on after a big hit. Chuck Amato's brother was the replay official, so naturally that douche bag analyzed that replay like it was the Zapruder film. The touchdown was upheld anyway. 20-3 UM.
FAU goes 3 and out, and Golden calls timeout to give the offense the ball with just under a minute remaining in the half. On the first play Morris' pass is tipped at the line of scrimmage and he ends up catching his own pass. Morris should have let it drop, but there was an FAU defender nearby so whatever. The play results in a loss of 16 yards and essentially ended the 1st half. 20-3 UM.
During the halftime interview, Golden is asked about what he needs to say to Coley about his drops. Golden responds with, "Just relax bro". And thus, a new meme is born:
GettinThatToGooo
ForensicCane
3rd Quarter:
UM gets the ball to start the 2nd half since they deferred to open the game. Dorsett's return doesn't get past the 10 yard line because he tried to go East/West instead of cutting up field. Morris promptly throws a horrible interception. There was nobody there except the FAU defender and now they're at UM's 20 yard line. FAU gets down to the 1 yard line and things are starting to feel awkward for UM. But then an FAU lineman flinches and backs them up to the 6. FAU ends up tacking on another field goal making it 20-6 UM.
Schnellenberger comes into the booth, and not a moment too soon because Miami and FAU aren't really doing anything with the ball. It made for a nice distraction from the lackluster performance by UM. They mostly talked about his time at UM and the '83 title team that was being honored. It was pretty cool to see them finally get their own Crystal Ball trophy.
Back to the game. After trading punts Miami starts putting a drive together. Morris hands it to Duke, who tosses it to Waters on an end around. Waters picks up two key blocks down the sideline, and cuts back across the field for a sick 63 yard touchdown. 27-6 UM.
Every Cane fan's "sum of all fears" moment came right after Waters crossed the goal line. Duke dove at a defender's knee after he pitched the ball to Waters and hurt his neck. He eventually got up and was helped to the sideline. The trainers handed him an iPad and started giving him a concussion test. He was good, but Duke never stepped foot on the field the rest of the night. Jesus.
FAU and Miami trade punts again, and then Kacy Rodgers comes up with a big play. He blitzes off the edge from his safety spot and drills the QB, forcing a fumble. Gilbert dives on it and Miami has the ball at FAU's 4 yard line.
Dallas Crawford runs it in on the fist play and it's 34-6 UM. FAU runs two plays to pick up a first down as the 3rd quarter ends.
4th Quarter:
On the 1st play of the 4th quarter, Kamalu and Gilbert combine for a sack and loss of 3 yards. It's the 5th of the game for Miami's defense. The drive goes nowhere and FAU punts. Miami has pulled the 1st team players by this point and the rest of the game is pretty boring. With Ryan Williams in the game, he starts moving the ball with freshman Gus Edwards toting the rock. He looks good and picks up a first down on a 16 yard run.
Williams lobs a ball for Scott and he makes an acrobatic catch. However, Scott lands awkwardly on his shoulder. It had to be a collar bone or seperated shoulder because his left arm was hanging to his side as he walked off the field. The trainers had to cut off his shoulder pads since he couldn't raise his arm, and he was seen walking to the locker room with an ice pack on his left shoulder. UM can't punch it into the endzone on 3 straight running plays and decide to go for it on 4th down. It looked like Edwards had crossed the goal line, but the referees said otherwise. It wasn't reviewed, and the commentators remarked how it certainly appeared to be a touchdown. By the way, if it were a touchdown, then UM would've covered the spread (-32.5). I'm sure that had nothing to do with it though.........
With just under 6 minutes left FAU takes over at their own 1, and starts trying to muster a drive to finish the game with some semblance of pride. Miami only has 2nd and 3rd string players in the game by now. Some of the freshmen in the game now start showing flashes of their potential. Figueroa makes a couple of hard hits, Jamal Carter makes a nice open field tackle, and Artie Burns makes a terrific play breaking up a deep ball to the end zone.
Finally with less than 10 seconds left, FAU is at Miami's 25 yard line and it's 4th down. With the clock running and out of timeouts, it starts to get frantic on the FAU sidelines. Coach Pelini instructs Jaquez Johnson to spike the ball....yes...spike the ball on 4th down.
Yikes. UM kneels on the ball to run out the clock ending the game at 34-6 UM.
Not a stellar performance by any stretch of the imagination. We'll need a better effort against the Gators next week. The best part of the win? Cmar is now undefeated as a Game Day Character.
decleated
